Questionable Hungarian online casino regulations polemic

Between the ongoing polemic in the USA regarding the formal legalization of online gaming and acceptance of it as a valid industry, we take casino news spotlight to another country. We share one of the weirdest casino news in this past week, as in Hungary, the government has banned the permission to play the slot machines in the country, except in licensed casinos.

A questionable law

Yesterday, the Hungarian government formally approved the law, which caused some polemic between many casino players. Hungary officials will now begin the process of removal of all installed slot machines in various installments (restaurants, bars, shopping’s, and cafes) across the country. Every entertainment venue besides casinos will be forbidden of installing slot machines for now on

The government has decided that from now on, the only way t be able to access this type of machines will be in casinos that have been authorized by the government. In this way they will be preventing easy access to slots to citizens with low monetary income, or in the words of Janos Lazar, Hungarian Prime Minister, they were a danger because they were used mostly by poor people with low incomes.

As expected, this ban includes a ban on slot machines installed outside the enclosures allowed (casinos and gambling halls) and the “imminent” removal of all existing slots. There is a deadline for the withdrawal and if not taken into account, serious fines will be given, even jail penalty.

Online casinos to be regulated

As an additional measure, the Hungarian government is considering regulating online casinos and all the games you can play in these cybernetic organisms. The regulatory process is in a fairly advanced state commented the Hungarian Prime Minister.

The regulation of online casino games will have two main objectives, the most important being the fact that in this way it will be easier to combat problem gambling and gambling addiction problems since access will be much more regulated, while the second is to raise money in taxes.

Although the statements always leave out the economic issue, most Hungarians believe that the reason behind the regulation of online gambling is that the government intends to quickly recover the 30 billion forints (about 105 million euros) in taxes that will be lost with the withdrawal of slots.